Galapagos vacation over, upstate farm project commence.

Reality hit hard Tuesday when we returned to Syracuse from our 10 days in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.  Flying into Philadelphia, where all the snow had already melted, was more than a little misleading, inspiring all sorts of phantom-spring enthusiasms.  Of course, our drive north quickly confirmed that winter still had a strong hold on the upstate.

After a day to recover from our homeward travel, Tamara and I were ready to prepare for spring, despite the inclement weather, which as it were, tried to fool us yet again by hovering in the 50s for a couple of days before deciding to dump a bunch of snow on us this morning.

We are about 10 weeks out from the average last frost, which means we are a touch late on starting some of our eggplant, leek, artichoke, herb, and tea transplants.  Tamara got some heirloom basil started yesterday, but this morning marked our first real day of planting - it's February 19th and we are already behind schedule!

The other night laying in bed, we sorted all of our seeds and determined when to start each plant and whether to direct seed or transplant.  We organized and filed them away so we could work our way through all the packets and baggies chronologically.  Consequently this morning was pretty simple.

Back in December we visited Tamara's sister Jo in Philadelphia for the annual fundraiser for her farm, Mill Creek Urban Farm, and scored a whole lot of amazing potting mix from Organic Mechanics in the silent auction.  We dug out a couple of the bags and filled the cells of some seed flats. 

Tamara is a budding master in the art of seed saving so hopefully someday our reliance on purchasing from seed companies will not be so heavy.  I doubt we'll ever need to buy another packet of tomato, pepper, or squash seed, but I'm sure we will.  The allure of seed catalogs is as irresistible as it is dangerous for my bank account.  We bought all of our seeds from High Mowing and Seed Savers Exchange, and had a good amount left over from last year's spending spree with Seeds of Change.  Add to that couple hundred dollars worth of seed all that Tamara has saved and I think we might need to consider acquiring more land.     

Tellingly, after deciding to not overdue it with Eggplant, which can be a little difficult to grow in this climate, we ended up with 4 different varieties, thus, proving our weakness of will when it comes to vegetables.  Little Finger, Rosa Bianca, Imperial Black Beauty, and Listada di Gandia were all sown this morning.

Although we have a decent number of rare, heirloom Scotland Leeks overwintering, we planted a whole lot more this morning as an insurance policy - you can never have too many.  We also decided to try Artichokes again, planting the Imperial Star variety, and doing a little more research as to how to trick them into flowering in their first year.  They are perennial in zones 7-10 and with a little help we think we can do it in zone 6.

We rounded out this mornings planting with hefty amounts of heirloom, Lettuce Leaf Basil, St. John's Wort, and German Chamomile.  All of which we intend to use in a value-added context - canned pesto, packaged medicinal herbs, and dried teas, respectively.

Over the course of the next 10 weeks we'll be starting more and more plants and crowding out the little space we have left in the house.  I'm looking forward to navigating the inevitable obstacle course.  From swimming with sea turtles, sea lions, and sharks last week, to planning and preparing for a busy spring of farming this week, overall, I'd have to say we are feeling pretty lucky these days.

And some pictures by Tamara.